Shloka 21
Qualities of the Wise — Chanakya Niti
मूर्खा यत्र न पूज्यन्ते धान्यं यत्र सुसञ्चितम् ।
दाम्पत्ये कलहो नास्ति तत्र श्रीः स्वयमागता ॥
mūrkhā yatra na pūjyante dhānyaṃ yatra susañcitam |
dāmpatye kalaho nāsti tatra śrīḥ svayam āgatā ||
Where fools are not honored, where grain is well stored, and where married life has no quarrel—there prosperity (Śrī) arrives of its own accord.
FAQs
In the broader Nīti-śāstra tradition, prosperity is often linked to orderly social valuation (who receives honor), material preparedness (food reserves), and household stability. Such themes reflect premodern concerns with subsistence security, reputation economies, and the household as a key unit of social order.
Prosperity (śrī) is framed as an emergent outcome associated with three conditions: restrained public honor toward the unwise, reliable accumulation of grain, and the absence of spousal conflict. The formulation treats prosperity as a consequence of social discernment, economic storage, and domestic concord.
Śrī functions both as an abstract noun meaning “prosperity/fortune” and as a personified figure who “arrives” (āgatā), a common Sanskrit trope. The parallel structure using repeated yatra (“where”) creates a list-like causal frame, and susañcitam (“well stored”) foregrounds a material, agrarian vocabulary typical of pragmatic ethical aphorisms.